Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video 266
longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."
Mirror (Score:3, Informative)
http://nycaviation.com.nyud.net:8090/2010/01/31/previously-unseen-amateur-video-of-space-shuttle-challenger-disaster/ [nyud.net]
Re:Mirror (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41jq_5ltkno [youtube.com]
Re:Mirror (Score:3, Informative)
Video here... (Score:5, Informative)
On the original article:
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100129/NEWS02/1290397/ [courier-journal.com]
Re:Speculation... (Score:5, Informative)
It is kind of hard when you realize that you just saw seven people die in front of your eyes.
You didn't see them die. They survived the explosion, and were killed by impact with the water. The proof is that they initiated emergency procedures after the explosion.
Come to think of it, I don't suppose that makes you feel any better.
Re:70 miles away on Betamax? No shit, Sherlock. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Speculation... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Speculation... (Score:5, Informative)
It is kind of hard when you realize that you just saw seven people die in front of your eyes.
Just being pedantic, but there's pretty good evidence that some, if not all, survived until impact with the ocean. Vehicle breakup was somewhere around 12Gs, which was survivable. On board oxygen was used, and switches that required pulling out against a spring had been changed to positions indicating an attempt to restore electrical power. Impact with the ocean was estimated to be somewhere around 200Gs. More here: http://history.nasa.gov/kerwin.html [nasa.gov] and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster#Cause_and_time_of_death [wikipedia.org]
So unless you witnessed the remains of the cabin hitting the water, you didn't see (all) seven people die.
Re:Speculation... (Score:2, Informative)
They passed out within seconds of the crash though.
Ummm no... Reality bites [wikipedia.org]